Thursday, March 03, 2005
The Hegemony of the Baby Boomers - (2)
Is there anything more tired than rock music? Originally innovative and free, the model – some combination of (male) vocal, guitars, bass and drums – is now entrenched and dominant. This is not to say that it is worthless, but our response to it is different to that of our parents (or their parents). Any guitar band now is part of a tradition, and we can only see it through all the others that have gone before. Archetypes have been created - the last gang in town, the wasted drug casualty, the androgynous front man – and we recognise them as such. We read their behaviour, and listen to their lyrics and chord changes, with reference to the tradition which spawned them. Acceptance today depends on faithfulness to this framework. You can enjoy this formula for a while - it does not really matter which bands you first became interested in, any will do - but it becomes stale. You’ve seen one…
The demographic power of the post-war generation has created the myth that the ‘60s (and now the ‘70s) was The Golden Age, 5th Century Athens to our measly Roman imitators. The harmonious ideals were formed, and gave us something to aspire to. Disposable, throwaway pop has become “classic”. For All Time. But the greatest feature of these records was their newness, that they did not sound like anything that had come before. We can’t feel this. Their limited artistic merit has been forever propped up by grainy footage of swaying acid-heads and screaming teens; we are nostalgic for crappy PAs, poor security and “real” music – the youth culture of another generation. We try and put ourselves in their place, strive to make the sound as “other” as it had been to those kids; but stripped of their novelty, very few records of the period have anything more to offer than simple enjoyment, what, after all, they were created for.
Our popular culture is supremely self conscious. It starts with a model and then plays with it – or, in the case of Paul Weller, is a slave to it. *This* is what *proper* music sounds like. But pop music did not start in 1956 (or 1963, or 1977 or 1988). There are other traditions to draw on and new directions to pursue. Too often bands set out to make an “Indie” record, or an “R&B” record, or an “Electronic” record, rather than working out what they want to say, and how they’re going to say it.
There was once hope with Hip Hop and Dance music, perhaps there still is. But they too have had cordons thrown around them, and have an established way of doing things. Downloads, with the emphasis on songs rather than albums may liberate us from genre. Let’s hope so. We can transcend them, and if we want anything more than variations on a theme, pastiches and post-modern play, then we must.
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Is there anything more tired than rock music? Originally innovative and free, the model – some combination of (male) vocal, guitars, bass and drums – is now entrenched and dominant. This is not to say that it is worthless, but our response to it is different to that of our parents (or their parents). Any guitar band now is part of a tradition, and we can only see it through all the others that have gone before. Archetypes have been created - the last gang in town, the wasted drug casualty, the androgynous front man – and we recognise them as such. We read their behaviour, and listen to their lyrics and chord changes, with reference to the tradition which spawned them. Acceptance today depends on faithfulness to this framework. You can enjoy this formula for a while - it does not really matter which bands you first became interested in, any will do - but it becomes stale. You’ve seen one…
The demographic power of the post-war generation has created the myth that the ‘60s (and now the ‘70s) was The Golden Age, 5th Century Athens to our measly Roman imitators. The harmonious ideals were formed, and gave us something to aspire to. Disposable, throwaway pop has become “classic”. For All Time. But the greatest feature of these records was their newness, that they did not sound like anything that had come before. We can’t feel this. Their limited artistic merit has been forever propped up by grainy footage of swaying acid-heads and screaming teens; we are nostalgic for crappy PAs, poor security and “real” music – the youth culture of another generation. We try and put ourselves in their place, strive to make the sound as “other” as it had been to those kids; but stripped of their novelty, very few records of the period have anything more to offer than simple enjoyment, what, after all, they were created for.
Our popular culture is supremely self conscious. It starts with a model and then plays with it – or, in the case of Paul Weller, is a slave to it. *This* is what *proper* music sounds like. But pop music did not start in 1956 (or 1963, or 1977 or 1988). There are other traditions to draw on and new directions to pursue. Too often bands set out to make an “Indie” record, or an “R&B” record, or an “Electronic” record, rather than working out what they want to say, and how they’re going to say it.
There was once hope with Hip Hop and Dance music, perhaps there still is. But they too have had cordons thrown around them, and have an established way of doing things. Downloads, with the emphasis on songs rather than albums may liberate us from genre. Let’s hope so. We can transcend them, and if we want anything more than variations on a theme, pastiches and post-modern play, then we must.
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